A penthouse always sounds nice - as did the story for this. I'd say quite intriguing with mystery and all that. But the thriller that is about to unfold here is not worth your time - which can be summed up to a few things that are its downfall.

While I like some of the actors (those you may recognize too, like Michael Pare and Nicholas Torturo),they really are not able to save this ship from sinking (to make another one of my famous puns - well "famous" as some may feel these actors are. Those who know, know) ... slow pacing, predictable and really not worth your time. Don't waste yours because I already wasted mine.

"What did you actually see?" I saw The Penthouse and you know what, I probably don't plan on seeing it again. At least not through my "rear window". Natch.

Anyway, 2021's "Penthouse" is my latest write-up. For once, the title actually fits what's going on in the movie. "Penthouse" is about a platonic married couple who purchase an 11th floor penthouse with great vistas. They also spy on a pseudo neighbor who lives on a boat and might be a cold-blooded killer (come on, you just know he is).

The Penthouse is not a violent thriller but a slow-burner and a low budget churner. Not a lot happens at least not what we the audience, can see. Suggesting something Hitchcockian, using flighty camera angles, and feeling like an art house version of a Lifetime pic, "Penthouse" has acting that's mediocre, suspense that's wonted, and direction that's well, standard. Despite all this, the viewer could easily get sucked in waiting for the final outcome (I did cause I'm just easily deceived).

So yeah, The Penthouse has an ending that's as laughable, unceremonious, and anti-climatic as I can remember. If the film's director (Massimiliano Cerchi) needed a few more takes to get what he wanted, he probably should have used them. The music pounces in at all the wrong moments, a dog escapes by itself on a boat, and the interplay between the lead characters feels like junior high kids making art with a camcorder.

Bottom line: The Penthouse has one decent performance that comes from entitled antagonist Michael Pare (he plays scruffy scammer Charles). And the flick does have a few tense moments where the "violence of the mind" is present and ever thought over. Most of the time though, "Penthouse" is more a cinematic "outhouse" than a luxurious fit. A mixed "view" to a kill.

A man covering up a crime assumes a nosy neighbor may have seen what he did, leading him to ruin their life. But how much did they see? That's the story of Massimiliano Cerchi's (Mayday, The House of Evil, Insane) The Penthouse.

Peter (David Schifter) and Amanda (Vanessa Ore) purchase the condo of their dreams, a gorgeous place that is right over the ocean. They become neighbors with the boaters who dock in the shadow of their high-rise, looking at them as their neighbors.

As they watch the comings and goings of a boater named Charles (Michael Paré),they'll soon wish they hadn't seen what looks like him murdering his girlfriend Tess (Krista Grotte Saxon). That's after Charles has gotten into a fight with Peter, framed him for breaking and entering and what could be the absolute worst thing, taken his dog.

Sure, it's Rear Window, but Paré is as intense as always, and that's the kind of movie I love to watch.

Under his other name Alvaro Passeri, Cerchi did the miniatures for Atlantis Interceptors and Fulci's Warriors of the Year 2072, as well as special effects for The Wild Beasts, even serving as the rock sculptor on Caligula, the assistant art director on Tentacles, the assistant production designer for Alien 2: On Earth and the director of Plankton.